Breaking Bad spinoff that was in development now in super-serious development

After more than a year of hearing that a Saul Goodman-centered Breaking Bad spinoff was being “eyed,” “explored,” and “mulled,” Vince Gilligan has upgraded the project's condition to “full speed ahead,” which is funny because meth. Still, behind the increasingly delightful wordplay, there’s still not much in the way of concrete decisions: “It's not a done deal yet, but it's definitely something we're full speed ahead on trying to get going,” Gilligan tells The Wrap, noting once again that he and Breaking Bad producer (and Saul creator) Peter Gould are still “plugging away” on a concept they can pitch to Sony, with the hope it would then develop as a series with Gould as showrunner. Included in that plugging away, as always, is deciding what exactly this show wants to be. As Gilligan says:

There's a way to make it a half-hour show and make it a little more—I don’t want to say sitcom-y, but a little more traditionally half-hour comedic. Or there's a way to do it where it fits more snuggly in with the Breaking Bad universe, in which it's an hour-long show. As you can imagine with Saul Goodman as a character, a show like that would have to have plenty of humor to it. But also because he works for some pretty scary clientele sometimes, there'd be a bit of drama in it as well. We're trying to nail that down. As of yet, we haven't completely figured that out ourselves.

There’s also the small matter of figuring out whether this series will be a prequel or sequel—a decision that could potentially mean bringing back actors from past seasons, like Giancarlo Esposito, and a decision that can only be officially made public once Breaking Bad ends. “I have to be coy as to whether it even could be a sequel. Because you never know, when the dust settles at the end of our final eight episodes, where everybody's gonna be and who's gonna be left standing,” Gilligan says, even though everyone already knows the last Breaking Bad episode will see Saul opening a gift shop with Blair and Tootie and adopting Mackenzie Astin, and boom, there's your show.